Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 42942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
“Son of…”
“You’re bleeding!” a woman said from in front of me. I looked up to see Lori Sinclair, Mary’s daughter.
I glanced down to see my hand was cut. “Shit,” I mumbled.
“Here, let me.”
Zipping open the little pack she had around her waist, she pulled out a wipe and a band-aid.
“You don’t have to do that, Lori,” I said as I attempted to pull my hand out of hers. The woman was stronger than I would have imagined and kept her grip on my hand while she cleaned it and put a band-aid on it.
“You might need to get a bandage on it if it doesn’t stop bleeding,” she said with a smile.
Manny Hawks, one of the archeologists assigned to the dig, made his way over to me, calling out my name. He looked at Lori, then at me.
“What happened, boss?” he asked, a knowing smirk on his face.
“Nothing, I tripped and cut my hand.”
Lori looked up at me with those big doe eyes of hers and smiled. “All set, Lucas.”
“Um, thanks, Lori.”
“Sure. I’ll be over there, cataloging things.”
I nodded. “Great. Thanks.”
With another look down at my hand and then up at me, she blushed and turned to walk away.
Once she was out of earshot, I faced Manny. “Don’t even say it.”
“Dude, she wants you.”
I rolled my eyes. “How are things going?”
“How are they going? We found out what building was here, or at least, I think we’re on the right path with the items we’ve been recovering.”
My eyes went wide, and I could feel my heartbeat picking up. I loved that moment when we made a discovery.
“What?” I asked, my breath nearly crackling with anticipation.
“A tavern.”
“A tavern?” I repeated as I looked at the massive area that we were working on. No matter where you were in New England, if you dug, you were sure to find something, but a tavern that wasn’t ever recorded to be in that spot—now that was interesting. “I wasn’t aware there was a tavern in this area.”
“No one was,” Manny said as he stepped over another rope. “Look at that well, Lucas. Look at it!”
I smiled. The large well was lined with rocks and was in unbelievably good condition.
“You found a well. A rather intact well, but what makes you think this site was a tavern?”
Manny motioned for me to follow him. “We found this earlier this morning.”
I stopped at the table where four people sat, including Lori. They were to document anything we found. Sitting on the table were two old beer mugs, three teacups, and what looked to be a smoking pipe. A perfectly intact smoking pipe. Up until this morning, we had found only pieces of pottery, two teacups, and some kitchen items.
I reached down and picked up the mug. “Holy shit.”
Manny laughed. “Can you imagine what we’re going to find, Lucas?”
I shook my head. “I need to go and change.”
Another roar of laughter from my work colleague and friend. “It’s time to dig in the dirt, my friend. We finally found the pot of gold. It has to be a tavern, with those types of items.”
Hitting him on the back, I smiled. “Good job, Manny. Good job.”
“Go do what you need to do because I know you, Lucas. You’re gonna want to be here when we dig up more stuff.”
I nodded and turned to head back to my car.
That had been what I needed to turn my day around. What started out as a bad day looked now to be turning out to be a great day.
At least, that was what I thought.
The door to my hospital room flew open, and I jerked my head up to see Hollie Craft standing there, a look of horror on her face.
“What happened?” she asked as she made her way over to the side of the bed.
“Ahh…I was getting out of my car and started across the parking lot, and some idiot hit me.”
Her hand went to her mouth, and she gasped.
“It’s okay, Hollie. I’m fine. Nothing is broken, but I do have some bruised ribs. The doctor wants me to go home and rest for a few days. The problem is, we think we found a possible tavern at the dig site. I need to get back to it. I can’t go home and rest.”
She swallowed hard. “So, it was an accident?”
I felt my brows pull down. “Yes. Unless you paid someone to try and run me over, and you’re here to see why he failed.”
Her face drained of color. “What!? Oh, my God, I would never do that. I would never try and hurt you!”
I reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Hollie, I was kidding. I thought it would be funny, you know, because of our past and everything.”
There was a knock at the door, and Wendy poked her head in. Shit. Greg must have told Janet, and she told Wendy.